Little lamb
by Beatrice Cecily
Summary: Matthew is lonely. The universe might not always give you what you want, but he gives you waht you need
1. Chapter 1

Matthew Williams walked down the small path behind his parliament leading to the cat sanctuary. The cats mewled as he set down the open can of tuna. He smiled sadly as the felines ate the fish. "Hey Mattie! You ready to go?" his obnoxiously loud twin brother, Alfred F. Jones, called. The younger sighed and called back;

"Yea, Al. One sec." he picked up the now empty tuna can and walked to where his brother was standing.

A few hours later the brothers were on a train going from Ottawa to Quebec City. About fifteen minute into the trip, Alfred fell asleep, leaving Matthew alone with his thoughts. The year was 1980. The month was May. The date; the 20th. This month the world conference was being held in Québec city. Because of this, Alfred had gone up north to his brother's capital a week before the conference so he could spend time with his twin and then the two could go to the French-Canadian province together. Matthew stared blankly out the window, barely taking in the landscape, simply thinking.

You see Matthew and Alfred weren't your average twins. That was most obvious by the fact that they have different last names. Also, the two young men looked to be about 24 or so but in truth they were born in the 1600's. Yes, these boys were very special indeed. The truth was these boys weren't even technically human. They were a species of Superhuman know as "Nationelles" or "Nations". Each Nation embodied a country or micro-nation of the world. Every six months the embodiments would go to a big conference and talk about any economic or climate problems they might have as well as trade and such. Or at least they were supposed to. Mostly there was about two minutes of real discussion then a lot of yelling and bickering and getting off topic for about five minute then the embodiment of Germany would yell at everyone to stop acting stupid. Then they would get back on topic for about three hours until lunch. Alfred was the representative of the United States of America, though most people shortened it to just America. Matthew was the representative of Canada, but most people shortened it to "Who?"

You see, Matthew wasn't the most memorable guy. In fact, sometimes he was completely invisible. Other times people mistook him for Alfred and Matthew would get beat up by people who were mad at Alfred. Mostly he was invisible and forgotten. Matthew had a pet polar bear named Kumajiro, who could never even remember his owner's name. Mind you, Matthew always messed up the bear's name, changing the second part of the bear's name constantly. Kumajiro was currently asleep on Matthew's lap.

Of every nation in the world, there was only ever one who never forgot Matthew or mixed him up with his brother, other than himself of course. One person who not only remembered Matthew, but actually cared about him. Sure his brother and fathers cared about him and stuff, but they also forgot who he was half the time. There was only one person who never forgot him. His boyfriend, Gilbert Beilschmidt. A single tear rolled down Matthew's face.

Gilbert was the embodiment of the kingdom of Prussia, despite it being dissolved. In modern day he represented East Germany, but everyone still calls him Prussia. Several more tears slid down Matthew's cheek. As mentioned earlier, the year is 1980, which meant the world was in the middle of the cold war. Which meant eastern Germany was under Russian control. Which meant Gilbert had been kidnapped by the embodiment of Russia. "35 years." Matthew whispered to himself. "35 years." That was about how long it had been since Matthew had seen his lover.

Matthew was very lonely.

Sure, for a nation 35 years isn't that long, but still. Matthew really missed Gilbert. He missed Gilbert claiming to be awesome. He missed Gilbert yelling when people forgot Matthew. He missed Gilbert complaining about being shoved in the "kiddy room", which is what he called the room where the micro-nations were placed during the world conference. He even missed Gilbert randomly coming into his house at two AM, drunk and demanding pancake. The bottom line was; Matthew missed Gilbert a lot.

The train stopped in Quebec City and the twins got off. They very soon found the man holding a sign with their names on it, who was the driver of the taxi Matthew had call ahead of time to order. Soon the twins were in the cab, and on their way to the hotel they would be staying in, which was only about ten minutes from the train station. About two or three minute into the trip, the driver stopped the car.

"Hey! Why are we stopped?" Alfred yelled, annoyed.

"Sorry, buddy. Traffic's really backed up. Something about some people wanting Québec to separate from the rest of Canada. Stupid, eh?" replied the driver, he luckily spoke English. Matthew sat up in his seat.

"What? Really?" he asked inquisitively.

"Yea, they're holding rallies and delaying traffic. It's really stupid if you ask me." Matthew had to check this out.

"I'm really sorry, but I'll be getting off here. Al, here is some money to pay the cabbie when you get to the hotel. I'll see you in a few hours. Take Kumasami to my room for me please." He said, tossing a Canadian hundred at his brother before getting out of the car. He mingled his way through the cars and made his way to the sidewalk. Then he waded through the crowd to see what was happening. Sure enough, standing outside the legislative assembly, were about 30 people walking around with signs. Suddenly, Matthew chest felt really tight. It felt like apart of his body was trying to separate it's self from the rest. 'What is happening?' he thought to himself. 'Is this rally really having an adverse affect on me?' he felt like he couldn't breath. He had to get out of there. Matthew ducked around a corner and began running from the scene. And ran. And ran. He continued to run for who knows how long, until he stopped. When he stopped, he was thoroughly exhausted. He looked around to see where he was. He was at the bottom of the funicular. Now, I can't tell you what happened that day, but something in his heart told him he had to get on that machine. So he did.

Once he got on the funicular, whatever was gripping in his chest just went away. Matthew looked around. There was only one other person on the funicular. A little girl, no older than a year old. She was sitting in the corner, playing with lace on one of her sleeves. She was wearing a white nightgown, with a high collar and long sleeves. Around each of her wrists was a ribbon. On her left, a red ribbon. On her right, a blue ribbon. Around her throat was a purple ribbon. She had straight, light blond hair, which reached her chin, and Red-Violet eyes. What was the most shocking about the little girl was the strange loopy curl sticking out of the left side of her hair. It was exactly the same as Matthew's own.

"_**Are you lost, little girl?**_" he finally asked her. She looked up at him.

"_**No. I'm just waiting.**_" she looked him straight in the eyes, and smiled. She had a very thick Québécois accent.

"_**Waiting?**_" he replied curiously.

"_**Yes. The spirits said if I wait here, someone will come and take me to where I belong.**_"

"_**To where you belong?"**_

"_**Yes. To where the countries meet and I become myself." **_She replied with wisdom beyond her years.__Matthew's eyes widened.

"_**What's your name?**_"

"_**I am called Québec.**_" She replied brightly.


	2. Chapter 2

"Alfred! Alfred! Alfred!" Matthew yelled when he got to the floor where the nations were staying. Since there were so many nations, there was always an entire floor rented for the world conference. Matthew ran down the hall and slammed his fist on the door of the room his brother was staying in. The American slowly opened the door, and looked at the other man.

"Who are you?" he asked sleepily. He obviously had been taking a nap.

"I'm Matthew." He sighed. "I'm sorry to wake you bro, but I have a little problem. Literally." He exclaimed, showing his brother the tiny child sleeping in his arms.

"Where'd you get a kid? You abduct her or something? Why would you abduct a kid?"

"I didn't abduct her. I just kinda' found her."

"Finding a kid and taking her without permission is kidnapping, dude. And people think you're the good twin."

"It's not like that. Look, she was just sitting in the funicular, downtown. When I asked her name, she said it was Québec, so of course I had to take her with me. Look at her!" he exclaimed. The two looked down at the tiny girl, who had woken up. There defiantly was a resemblance. The little girl had the same coloured hair as Matthew, for one. And the curl. She looked curiously at the two men. Her eyes were a similar colour to Matthew's but they were purple, with a touch of red, whereas Matthew's were blue-violet. She looked straight at Alfred and asked

"Qui es tu?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Sorry kiddo. I don't speak gibberish." Alfred replied. Matthew sighed, setting the child on the bed.

"That was French, Alfred. She asked who you are." Matthew explained, wondering how on earth his twin didn't speak French.

"French? Why did she talk in French?"

"She says her name is Québec." Matthew shrugged. "Québec is my only province where French is the primary language." They both looked back at the girl, who was watching them, kicking her feet. Alfred walked over to the girl.

"DO. YOU. SPEAK. ENGLISH?" he asked rather loudly, a little close to her head.

"Non, mais je comprande, et tu es tros fort." She said, looking like she was about to cry. Without thinking, Matthew quickly went over, scooped up the child, and held her close to his chest. She immediately snuggled closer.

"Well? What'd she say?" Alfred asked, looking like he had just unlocked some great mystery.

"She doesn't speak English, but she can understand it. Also, you are too loud and you almost made her cry. Try to be quieter." Matthew scolded. Alfred simply smirked.

"Dude. Calm down. You're acting like you're her daddy or something." Matthew looked startled at his brother, and then looked down at the girl burying herself into his chest. He had to admit, she was cute. He looked in the mirror. This scene did make him look like her father.

"Are Arthur and Francis here yet?" Matthew asked quietly. Alfred nodded, still smirking. Matthew, followed closely by Alfred, went into the hall and found the door with the union jack on it. You could hear the addible sound of bickering from behind it. Matthew softly rapped on the door. After a moment or two of no response, Alfred knocked on the door calling;

"Hey Iggy, Francy-pants. It's us. Open the door." Almost immediately the door swung open, and a pot came flying through the doorway. Matthew screamed and ducked, putting a protective hand over the little one's head, while Alfred simply side-stepped. "Hey, watch it. Mattie's got a baby on board." Alfred yelled. Immediately the two older men, (who had continued to fight after the door was opened) looked over at the Canadian, protectively clutching a small child. The twins were ushered into the room.

"You have a child." Arthur said slowly. It wasn't a question, but a statement. Matthew simply nodded and looked down at the little girl, who in turn looked up at him curiously, then smiled.

"Tell uz exactly what happened." Chided Francis.

"Well, I was in the cab with Alfred, when I heard some people were holding a rally for Québec to separate. I got out of the cab to check it out. When I saw the rally, my chest started to feel really tight. I ran away from the scene and ran until I was in front of the funicular. I got on the funicular and she," gesturing to the child "was sitting there. She said she was waiting because spirits told her to, and her name is Québec. I told her I was probably the person she waiting for, and told her to come with me. After that I hailed a cab and came here." He said, sitting down on the bed. To two elders looked at each other then back at Matthew, each smiling.

"C-congratulations!" Arthur exclaimed, a little surprise could be heard in his voice.

"I'm to beautiful to be someone's grandparent." Francis wept.

"What the Lady Liberty are you two talking about?" Alfred asked, already knowing the answer. Matthew looked wide eyes at the smiling child.

"Oh my-"

"Erable!" She cried, feeling very proud of herself.

"Uh, yea." Matthew said, removing the child from his lap, and placing her on the bed. "So you're saying she is my-"

"Daughter, yes." Arthur replied. He smiled tenderly at his new grandchild, who in turn looked back and smiled. Alfred was consoling the Frenchman.

"But how-"

"Same way you two are my and the frog's children." Francis began texting.

"Does that mean she has another parent?"

"Maybe yes. Maybe no. Have you, uh, slept with anyone recently?"

"No."

"Then probably not."

"Why now? And why only Québec? What about my other provinces? Oh maple. I don't think I can handle raising thirteen kids."

"You said yourself. There is a separatist rally being held. She is probably Separatist Québec as a nation. Not Quebec as a province." There was a pause.

"Well, now what?" Francis's phone was beeping like crazy.

"You should probably give her a name."

"A name?" Matthew looked over at his little child. She was back to her lace.

"We nation are born with our national names. Our parents give us our human names." The Frenchman's phone continued to buzz constantly. "Francis! We are trying to have a touching family moment! Why is you phone going off?"

"Oh, noting. Juzt zome tingz for ze World Conferenze tomorrow." He said casually, an evil look in his eye. Alfred looked at the phone and grinned.

"Oh, maple! The conference! I completely forgot. What am I going to do? I can't just skip it. I'm the host country." Matthew exclaimed, getting flustered.

"Chill Mattie. Just bring her along. I can't imagine anyone objecting to a cute baby being there. Especially a baby nation." Alfred soothed. "Go to your room and go to bed. Tomorrow, bring her to the conference. No sweat."

"That's all well and good in theory, Alfred, but tell me. Where will she sleep? It's not like I was anticipating this to happen and packed a crib in my suitcase." He asked, collecting his child from the bed.

"Je peau dormer avec Papa, dans son lit." she said. Matthew felt like someone had just shot him with an arrow. Never in his 400- something years had he ever imagined anyone calling him "Papa", yet there was an adorable baby in his arm who had just called him that.

"I remember when you uzed to call me zat." Francis jeered.

"Then you gave me away to the British. Good night everyone." And like that, he went into his room and closed the door.


End file.
